Steve Earle Quotes

Bob Dylan is my idol. Everybody has that person growing up that made them see things a little differently than they did before, Dylan is that guy for me. My dad gave me the 'Blonde on Blonde' album on cassette tape when I was seven or eight. It took me a while to get into Dylan's vibe, but once I did, I never looked back.

I know when somebody's heard my music. I can hear it in their music.

I grew up as a kid looking at artists like David Bowie and Prince; I really admired them.

Any time I need to get a serious attitude adjustment, I put on one of their records, and there are examples there for all time to keep us honest and keep us reaching; they'll never be eclipsed.

As I said to Ringo, I was in a successful Rock N Roll band. He was in a band that changed the world. That's the difference.

I've always been the first to admit that Jimi was a very big influence on my early stuff.

The rappers have gone in and created a lot of hit music based upon my influence. And they'll tell you if you ask.

Bob Dylan is as influential as any artist that there has been.

I think for writers who write that kind of stuff, they want to make changes. Look at Kris Kristofferson and Dylan. I mean, whole generations come along liking that stuff and that's great.

I'm pretty obsessed with Sara Bareilles. She is so talented, and I feel like I would learn so much from her.

I feel like everything I do in the hip-hop world has an influence. People don't really notice what I did until somebody else does it. As far as hip-hop goes, I want to continue to make good music, and good art. I don't really follow the state of hip-hop.

I look at the careers of people I'm standing on the shoulders of. People like Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., and Sarah Vaughan. These are icons I wanted to emulate, and I feel like they've been holding me up for quite a long time.

I think probably songwriters are gonna be the toughest critics... I think of it as a community. And we all sort of feed off of each other.

Sly Stone made such a huge contribution to the good feeling in the universe, and I love him as a singer.

I think Pac is one of those artists that generations on generations know who this guy is, as an artist, as an activist, as an actor - entertainer across the board. I think the new generations of entertainers and artists can be influenced by him just as much as people in the '90s.

Following in the footsteps of Berry Gordy, I always admire what he did.

I wasn't Lennon, or I wasn't McCartney. I was me. And the only reason I started to write songs was because I thought, 'Well, if they can write them, I can write them.'

I think the first older artist I related to and loved was Bowie.

I always loved Oasis because when they came out, they did express that they loved us, and they saw that we did it, and they thought they could do it, too.

We've influenced other artists, and when younger generations become fans of those artists and hear about us, they discover our music too.

I know stories of Tupac, but I was really, really young when he passed. The fact that he was such a thespian, and so passionate about his craft, was shocking to me in a way. I'm shocked to see that here's this man that passed at 25 that we're still talking about, 20 plus years later. That's an eye-opener for me.

My family knew I was gay when I was 15, long before I got famous. But it's a very different thing coming out to your family and coming out to the universe. That's a big step. Maybe without me, there wouldn't be Adam Lambert. Without Bowie, there wouldn't be me. Without Quentin Crisp, there wouldn't have been Bowie. So everything is part of a big daisy chain.

All songwriters are links in a chain.

I've been connected to the most culturally important albums of the past four years, the most influential artists of the past ten years. You have like, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, Nicolas Ghesquière, Anna Wintour, David Stern.

People wanted to move to America because of Michael Jackson. Industry changed, the music industry changed, because of Michael Jackson. That's a gift to us, and, you know, I am concerned that the Good Lord may not send another one because we did not take good care of him.